Chapter 91

Chapter 91.

The world’s most advanced military satellites.

S-rank detection Hunters who were the best of the best.

Tens of thousands of informants.

Even after pouring all of those resources and astronomical sums of money into it, they had never once caught so much as the tail of Pandemonium’s heart in the past ten years. The ‘Ghost Fortress.’

I only finally understood why that concealment had succeeded when I stood in the sky over the Yellow Sea.

“It wasn’t optical camouflage to begin with.”

It was magic.

And not ordinary magic, either. It was a vicious concealment formula that followers of Outer Gods had created by grotesquely twisting the laws of dimensions, making it impossible to pierce with Earth’s common sense or modern science.

But.

The Authority of Nopi’s EX-rank graphics card.

As long as I had the ability to see the ‘Threads of Mana,’ it could not escape my eyes.

Mana was meant to flow and circulate endlessly like clear water.

And in my eyes, the grain of that transparent Mana began to come apart, every strand visible like a web of tangled threads.

“Found you.”

The empty air over the Yellow Sea.

There, I saw Mana like pitch-black rotten water, stagnant and festering until it had completely decayed, clumped together grotesquely.

A machine weapon shaped like a spider with eight legs.

Its back had been flattened wide and level like an aircraft carrier, making it a bizarre Mobile Fortress in and of itself.

I took out Wood Severance No. 2.

“Hmm.”

I aimed the tip of the sword and calculated how to cut it down in a single stroke, but...

In that instant, I felt a strange sense that something was off.

‘...Why does it look so far away?’

The fortress visible before my eyes was close enough that I could reach it by kicking off the air and swinging my sword once.

But the moment I aimed my sword with killing intent, intending to ‘cut down’ the foul concealment magic hiding the fortress, spatial distortion occurred, as if the entire fortress had suddenly receded far beyond a distant fog.

‘Spatial magic that senses killing intent and widens the distance? The spell formulas used by the Dregs of an Outer God had an advanced gimmick like this?’

At that moment.

I raised my alert level toward Pandemonium’s Guild Master by one stage.

While clearing the 90th-floor range, I had met plenty of Outer God lackeys.

And I had killed every single one without letting any escape.

Even for me, this was the first time I had seen a spatial distortion gimmick like this.

What that meant was clear.

The one crouching inside this fortress was far more troublesome and powerful than the Outer God forces I had sliced apart on my way up to the 93rd Floor.

Slowly.

I quietly lowered Wood Severance No. 2, which I had been aiming, and withdrew my killing intent.

Then the mechanical spider fortress, which had grown distant like a mirage, slid back to its original distance right before me.

“They made this annoying. I’ll have to find a weakness.”

All magic had its own purpose.

Frost Type froze things.

Flame Type burned things.

The magic system of those Outer God bastards had only one purpose. ‘Concealment.’

And this cowardly concealment formula had one very filthy extra function attached to it besides ‘hiding well.’

‘Going fucking berserk like a kicked hornet’s nest when discovered’ was exactly what that function was.

If I touched it clumsily, it was obvious that it would trigger alarms in every direction, disrupt my field of vision, then use that opening to flee or attempt a mutual kill.

As I was drawing up the worst possible move.

WHIIIIIR-!

Nopi was trembling and screaming.

“Hold on a little longer, Nopi.”

I carefully examined the grain of the Mana.

If not for Nopi’s high-end specs, this might have been fairly troublesome.

“Found it.”

As expected, there was a weakness.

It was on the belly side of the mechanical spider.

A passage where air faintly moved between the inside and outside. The Mana grain there was visibly loose.

“Then, shall we begin pest control?”

I left the Mana Stone helicopter that had been on standby hovering in the nearby air, then threw myself forward without hesitation and stepped on empty air.

After kicking off the air and moving between the spider’s legs, I positioned the weakness of the concealment magic circle overhead and drew Mana up into the sword blade.

SLAAASH—!

Wood Severance No. 2, brimming with blue Sword Energy, sharply drew a line through the air.

As if taut cloth had been cut open with sharp scissors, space split wide apart with a skin-crawling sound of tearing air.

Beyond that split gap, the lower section of the steel Mobile Fortress revealed itself.

I had cut it so quickly that even its defensive mechanism had failed to register the damage.

Just before the magic circle’s restoration force could sew the severed surface shut, I slipped through the gap and landed inside the fortress.

First, I immediately turned Nopi off.

In that brief span of time, its battery had dropped into the 80% range.

I had made it inside, but a thick special-alloy door, a physical barrier, blocked my way.

Fortunately, it was electronic.

[Hack Complete. Opening Door.]

Which meant it was food for Snowy.

SWISH-

Beyond the door that opened smoothly without a single harsh noise, I saw a long corridor filled with cool air and doors packed closely together along it.

“Snowy, scan the surroundings.”

[Nearby heat sources: ‘0’.]

“A map… there wouldn’t be one.”

I was about to ask Snowy to pull up a map, then stopped.

This was the first time Pandemonium’s Mobile Fortress had ever been observed from the outside, so there was no way an internal map existed.

[No, there is one.]

“?”

How does it know that?

[I sneaked out some data while hacking the door just now.]

“Excellent.”

[Displaying internal 3D map.]

Snowy projected a hologram.

Long, straight corridors and rectangular rooms appeared in 3D.

[Power can be charged in the room directly beside your entry zone. How about charging Nopi first in preparation for the battles ahead?]

“No, pass.”

I did not know when the next terror attack would occur.

From this point on, it was a race against time.

“We move quietly, take the head, and withdraw.”

[Understood.]

Snowy displayed an arrow in front of my eyes.

[Guiding you along the recommended route to the central area where the ‘Guild Master’ is highly likely to be.]

Carefully, no, with my presence erased completely, I began to walk.

When I had only just started climbing the Tower, when I had no abilities and not even a rat’s-horn worth of strength.

The silent footwork I had acquired solely to survive.

The only little technique I could use even in an Awakening Failure state.

After walking for a while, sweeping through the corridor with ghostlike steps that let neither footstep nor breath leak out.

‘It’s wider than I expected.’

Compared to the size of the mechanical spider I had seen from the outside, the interior felt at least twice as wide.

Space expansion magic was clearly active across the entire interior.

It seemed reaching the target point would take longer than I had expected.

On top of that, the internal structure displayed on the map was a maliciously twisted maze itself.

In other words, wandering around the maze of this vast fortress like a rat was itself the trap they had dug and a serious waste of time.

“Snowy.”

[Yes, Agent.]

“Not this maze-like route that runs around in circles. Draw me one straight line by the shortest distance to the central coordinates where the heat sources are most concentrated or where the boss bastard is likely holed up. Ignore the walls or anything else.”

[...That straight route is blocked by fourteen thick special-alloy bulkheads and five layers of defensive magic circles.]

“That’s fine. Draw it.”

DING.

On the hologram map, a blood-red straight route was drawn clean across, ignoring all the winding corridors.

I opened Nopi again.

“I’ll finish this as fast as possible.”

CLICK.

I turned on Synchronization.

Then I drew Mana up from my Dantian.

“Whew.”

Lightly adjusting my grip on Wood Severance No. 2, I walked toward the first steel wall blocking my path.

A covert infiltration?

There was no one around right now, so there was no bastard to notice. Then it was covert.

Quietly assassinating only the head?

Even if I smashed everything on the way in, if no witnesses remained, that was assassination.

‘The fastest and surest method is...’

KRAAAAASH—!!!

The explosive blue Sword Energy unleashed by Wood Severance No. 2 mercilessly crushed the steel bulkhead, several dozen centimeters thick, as if tearing apart a sheet of paper.

The entire fortress shook as though struck by a magnitude-7 earthquake, and a deafening roar burst out in every direction.

‘To smash everything and go straight.’

WHIIIIIR-! BEEP! BEEP-BEEP!

[Intruder detected! Sector 1 outer armor damaged! Emergency in all sectors! Emergency in all sectors!]

Crimson warning lights spun everywhere, and sirens screamed like mad.

I brushed off the collapsed debris and stepped through the broken wall.

“My knock was a little loud, wasn’t it?”

That was when I was mindlessly charging straight ahead, smashing even the second and third bulkheads as if slicing tofu.

I noticed a strange sense that something was off.

According to the usual third-rate villain cliché, since the alarm was ringing like this, vermin should have swarmed in like bees, spouting predictable lines like “Who are you?!” and “It’s an intruder! Kill him!”

But it was too quiet.

According to Nopi’s heat-source display, it was not that there were no people...

No, to be exact, it was not that they were not coming.

‘They can’t come closer.’

Beyond the broken bulkhead, I briefly glimpsed small-fry underlings crushed by my presence, their legs having given out as they huddled in corners and trembled.

It seemed they had instinctively realized that approaching meant death and hidden themselves like maggots.

‘Hiding won’t do you any good. You’re all dead today anyway.’

Everyone connected to the Outer Gods dies.

That was the grand principle I had learned in the Tower.

The moment I was about to step forward, trampling over the collapsed debris.

[A single heat source has been detected in the central area ahead.]

At Snowy’s notification, I stopped walking.

At the end of the corridor, where steel debris lay scattered as if a storm had swept through.

In the center of that place, as the acrid cloud of dust slowly cleared, someone wearing a pitch-black cloak stood alone.

While everyone else hid, trembling in fear, this was the only heat source enduring my presence fully from the front.

‘Is that puny bastard Pandemonium’s Guild Master?’

His build was so slight that I could not possibly imagine him as an adult man, so I could not be certain.

But he was planted squarely in the path leading to the fortress’s most important heart, staring straight at me as he slowly walked forward.

Step. Step.

Even though the Sword Saint’s aura was pressing down on every side, his steps were relaxed, as if he were taking a stroll.

Then there was only one conclusion, wasn’t there?

And if I was wrong, so what?

— I was going to kill them all anyway.

I focused Mana into both feet, lightly kicked off the floor, and glided through the air.

WHOOOOSH—!

The dozens of meters between us vanished in a single leap.

A lightning-fast strike that gave him no room to evade.

With dense Mana heavy enough to slice off an arm with ease, I drove Wood Severance No. 2 down toward his shoulder.

THWAAAACK—!!!

An enormous impact, the kind that rang out when something did not merely break but got smashed all to hell, shook the fortress.

But.

My Wood Severance No. 2 failed to cut off his right arm.

Instead, it vibrated as though blocked by something and on the verge of being thrown back.

The black cloak he wore.

No, the black shape I had mistaken for a cloak rippled, then changed form like a beast’s forepaw and blocked my sword strike head-on.

‘This is...?’

Facing it up close made it clear.

It was nothing like a cloak woven from fabric.

Rotten black mud, thick with clinging viscosity, was writhing like living tentacles and wrapping the man’s entire body like armor.

“This bastard...”

In that instant, a repulsive sense of déjà vu flashed through my mind.

I knew the identity of this disgusting magic.

The first among the many revolting Authorities wielded by an Apostle of an Outer God.

‘Mud of Degradation.’

It was an overpowered growth-type magic that allowed the user to selectively grant the mud countless curses and abilities as they evolved.

But there was only one method in the world to ‘grow’ this magic, which boasted performance so heinous that even those overpowered traits seemed laughable.

...Sacrificing one’s own kind.

In this case, humans...!

If the mud’s density and hardness had risen enough to repel my strike head-on, the truth behind it was obvious.

“Just how many humans have you eaten?”

Because his upper features were covered with black mud like a helmet, I could not see them.

But the youthful lower half of his face, barely exposed beneath it, entered my eyes clearly.

At my question, the corners of his mouth curled up in a chilling arc.

An open, arrogant sneer.

“What are you so surprised about?”

It was a youthful voice, as if it had not even fully passed puberty.

“I did all of it exactly the way you taught me.”

“...!”

...And it was a very familiar voice.

‘No way...!’

The man tipped his head upward.

The black mud covering the upper half of his face slid down like a snake shedding its skin, and at last, the man’s entire face was revealed.

“It’s been a while, First.”

‘....’

It was a face I could not possibly fail to know.

Inside the Tower.

Back when the only goal in my life was the ‘clearing’ of climbing upward like my life depended on it...

In that hellish place, the one and only disciple I had dragged by the collar through every skill and survival method I possessed.

Iranshu was there.

“Should I call you Master?”

“You...”

There was no time to finish speaking.

BOOOOM!

The Mud of Degradation exploded in every direction.